As well as explaining what the Big Bang theory actually is, Singh addresses why cosmologists believe that it is an accurate description of the origin of the universe. He also tells the story of the scientists who fought against the academic establishment which believed in an eternal and unchanging universe. The story of the triumph of the Big Bang theory is in many ways the story of scientific progress itself. With clarity and a narrative with anecdotes and personal histories of those who have struggled to understand creation, Singh has created the definitive guide to the universe.
Simon Singh is a science journalist and TV producer. Having completed his PhD at Cambridge he worked from 1991 to 1997 at the BBC producing Tomorrow's World and co-directing the BAFTA award-winning documentary Fermat's Last Theorem for the Horizon series. He is the author of Fermat's Last Theorem, which was a no. 1 bestseller in Britain and translated into 22 languages. In 1999, he wrote The Code Book which was also an international bestseller and the basis for the Channel 4 series The Science of Secrecy.
"Comprehensive yet eminently comprehensible [...] Singh explains even the most complicated ideas with subtlety, grace and wit."
- Economist
"[Singh] is a gifted expositor, ready to venture to places other science popularisers don't even try to reach."
- Mail on Sunday
"Singh's unerring eye for picturesque anecdotes and his capacity for simplifying complex scientific ideas is a winning formula"
- Sunday Telegraph
"Singh presents a tightly structured history of the key players in humankind's realisation of how much space really is out there. As Singh shows, coming up with a theory of how the universe began is possibly the most creative thing of all."
- Guardian
"Singh is a very gifted story teller who never misses a chance to make his subject clearer of more entertaining [...] Singh is also fastidious about crediting the true pioneers of science [...] a brilliant book."
- Independent on Sunday